Not born to follow, Montclair motorcyclist tours continent

Montclair resident Joe Lunin is an avid motorcyclist. An attorney, Lunin received a "biker bear" as a retirement gift from his Morristown law firm. His wife Diana Lunin, right, is a Montclair Public Library Foundation board member. In May, Joe completed an 8,285-mile trip in 20 days.

In May, over the course of 20 days, Joe Lunin traveled 8,285 miles around the continent. The 73-year-old Montclair resident has now ridden his motorcycle to every U.S. state to which one can ride a motorcycle.

This latest ride, Lunin's longest, took him through the western part of the continent, through Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Idaho, Washington, to British Columbia, across the middle of Canada and back home. Though he took a couple of interstates, most of Lunin's routes went along secondary roads.

A fairly major hiccup occurred outside Yorkton, Saskatchewan, when the drive belt on his bike broke. Because it occurred on the weekend of a Canadian holiday, it set him back a couple of days.

Otherwise, Lunin didn't run of gas, didn't hit any deer - nor did any deer hit him - this time.

A highlight of the trip was going to the Soo Locks, which enable ships to pass between Lake Superior and the lower Great Lakes. He watched a boat in the locks as he rode by.

People along the way mark his memories, too: "I chatted with a guy in Superior, Wisc. He know a lot about our governor," Lunin recalled. "It was so much fun."

The best food he encountered on this trip? It was a tie between a couple of steakhouses: one in McCall, Idaho, in a mountaintop lodge. The other was in Batavia, N.Y., on his last night. Meals must be within walking distance of the hotel. A little walking is good; he sleeps less and eats less when on long road trips.

"It doesn't require a lot of energy. It does require some perseverance, some planning and some mental agility so you know what you're doing," he said.

Lunin is an attorney who retired from a Morristown-based firm in 2005; he continues to practice pro bono work. His passion for touring began as a bicyclist, and he still enjoys the pleasures of pedal power. But, he noted, a 10-mile trip off the highway isn't as much of an ordeal on a motorcycle as it is on a bicycle.

"With a motorcycle, you're much more flexible in being able to see what you want to see," he said.

Lunin doesn't necessarily travel with the rest of the biker packs. He gets up and on the road very early in the morning. "No one else wants to ride with me," Lunin said.

But he said he enjoys the solitude. Lunin said he often talks to himself on the road.

"I have discussions," he said. "Sometimes I make an argument, and I realize it doesn't work and I have to rethink it."

And being on the road, he added, "there's a lot to pay attention to." Looking out for wildlife is important: once a nearby car hit a deer, sending it flying across the lanes. Lunin saw four bears in four different places. He saw four elk in three places. He saw a moose and a beaver.

The pace on the roads change once one crosses into Canada, where "it just settles down," he said.

Lunin took his May trip, which began on May 7 and ended on May 26, on his 2006 Harley Davidson Ultra touring bike, which he bought new and which now has about 70,000 miles on it. Another motorcycle, which he bought new in 1996, a Harley Road King, has about 160,000 miles on it. His first motorcycle, a Honda, he clocked 5,000 miles on.

He and his wife, Diana Lunin, have been married nearly 46 years. During the trip, Diana would stop worrying about him when he got off the road in the evening and called her, he noted.

Joe has been in two serious motorcycle accidents - one, in Texas, on an oil slick, and another, in upstate New York, when a deer hit him. Both were serious leg injuries. Still, considering the miles he has logged, Diana said she thinks Joe has fared very well.

"I'm very impressed," Diana said. "I think it's an amazing thing to do, at any age."

Why does he do it?

"You can't go everywhere, but I do have this urge to see the country," Joe Lunin said. "I just like to see the terrain and the land."